Indian startups raised 32% fewer rounds in 2024 as VCs got selective

Indian startups raised 32% fewer funding rounds in 2024 compared to last year, per new numbers from data intelligence platform Tracxn, signaling that investors are being more selective when striking deals.

The number of startup funding rounds fell to 1,448 compared to 2,114 last year, but overall funding rose 6% to $11.3 billion — the disparity here indicates that investors aren’t shy of whipping out their checkbooks when they want to.

Early-stage investment activity reflected the broader trend, with the number of Series A and Series B deals declining to 387 from 420 a year earlier, though the total capital invested remained steady at $3.16 billion. Fewer startups managed to raise seed funding this year, though, with transactions falling to 925 from 1,545, while funding contracted 22% to $970 million.

Late-stage funding underscored the market’s favor of larger deals, with startups raising 136 Series C and later rounds for a total of $7.13 billion this year — a 12% increase in capital despite lower volume. Startups raised 20 rounds worth more than $100 million in 2024, compared with 18 such rounds in 2023.

The public markets emerged as a bright spot, with over 40 startups completing IPOs — an 80% increase from 2023. Swiggy’s $1.35 billion listing last month was this year’s largest tech IPO globally.

A pipeline of more than 20 startups, including quick-commerce group Zepto, and business-to-business marketplace Infra.Market, are preparing to go public in 2025.

A number of early-stage startup deals are also in the works, sources tell me: Quick-commerce startup Swish is in talks to raise about $15 million; Premji Invest in talks to back Digitap; Spotdraft is seeking to raise a debt round; WhistleDrive is in talks to secure about $11 million; Vodex.ai is in advanced stages of discussions to secure about $10 million to $15 million; and 91squarefeet, Galaxeye.space, R for Rabbit, and Biryani by Kilo are in advanced stages of deliberations to close new rounds.